Cray-1 resurfaces in pieces on eBay

The stories it could tell. But then it would have to kill you

What are the odds that two different sellers on both sides of the Pond would find themselves peddling some of the processing modules of the original Cray-1 vector supercomputer?

The probability would be 1.

A chap in the United Kingdom put up one of the original Cray-1 gate array modules on the UK eBay site for £550 on May 17, and no one bid on it. This seller claims that the Cray 1 module came from the very first Cray-1 super, which was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976 after a bidding war with Lawrence Livermore National Lab. This original Cray-1 was shipped off to the European Weather Centre in the UK, and then absorbed into the bowels of a UK government site for heaven only knows what purpose.

The Cray-1 vector supercomputer: Still the coolest HPC of all time, unless you like Der Blinken Lights.

Over at FutureBots in the States, Dan Mathais — who sells electronic components and has a huge collection of vintage PCs, minis, and supercomputers as well as toy robots — also has a Cray-1 module for sale here on eBay for $1,000.